Opinion
No. 03 C 1396.
April 1, 2004
Plaintiff's motion for reconsideration is GRANTED and my prior order is REVERSED.
Plaintiffs have asked me to reconsider my earlier order denying their motion for class certification. In that order, I found that a class action was not a superior method of adjudication because the potentially enormous damage award (between $6.5-$65M) was unrelated to the actual amount of damage caused. Since my ruling, Plaintiffs have settled their case against Western Sierra Acceptance Corp. leaving only Ridge Chrysler/Plymouth as a party to this suit.
In reviewing that order, I find its reasoning was better applied to Western Sierra, a company that could have certainly been put out of business by a large damage award. Ridge Chrysler, on the other hand, has gone out of business and will not suffer great injury in the event of a large damage award. Ridge Chrysler does have a $500,000 insurance policy that could be used to pay damages to the Plaintiffs. Since Ridge Chrysler's assets appear to be limited to the insurance policy, the possibility of "crushing damages" is limited. Therefore, I reverse my earlier ruling and grant class certification against Ridge Chrysler.
Plaintiffs' Motion for Reconsideration is GRANTED and my earlier order is REVERSED.